How a Professional Photographer Frames Landscapes with a Smartphone

2015-05-05

Millions of people around the world take billions of photos on their smartphones every day. Professional photographers are proud to use their digital SLR cameras, but tend to look down on smartphone cameras. Julian Calverley is an exception. He shoots images for advertisements with a professional camera, but uses his Apple iPhone for landscape photos. How does he do it?

Here is a tip from our smartphone photographer: purchase a mini-size tripod and a phone holder that can be attached to the tripod.

For many travelers, landscape photography is the most difficult genre in photography. You see a stunning scenery in front of you, grab your camera, take a few pictures and can’t wait to view them on a large screen in your hotel room. Often, even if you have a good camera, landscape photos are disappointments because they didn’t capture the beauty of the scenery at all.

Cnet’s Andrew Hoyle got an interview from Julian Calverley who makes some very good points on photography, and shares a few tips for taking landscape images on a smartphone.

Why smartphone?
“It was a new-found freedom really. This thing was always in my pocket — in the past, everything was thought about. I had to think, ‘OK, I’m going to take my camera out, I’m going to take X amount of gear with me.’

“The downside is that people think anyone can take a picture now. Because software and camera equipment has dumbed the process down so much it’s easier to get a good result. Obviously, you can’t ‘buy’ composition and lighting.”

Tips for camera phone photographers:
1. “Avoid things that are really contrasty, because of the dynamic range of the phone.”

2. “I tend to go for simple scenes, simple compositions. The nice thing is, because you’re doing it on a phone, you have a reasonable sized preview — if an image works at that size, you’re onto something.”

3. “It’s very easy for the lens to get dirty when you’re taking it out of your pocket, so make sure you give it a wipe with a cloth — that’s basic, but it’s important.

4. “Always keep the horizons horizontal. You can correct that in apps, but you’ll lose quality to crop in.”

5. “You still need to have an eye for a good shot. That will never change.”

Julian Calverley has published a book #iphoneonly of his best landscape photos. His photo collection on Instagram features both digital SLR and smartphone photos.

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